LAKERS -at- MAGIC - 11-4-23 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

36 Second-Chance Points for the Magic... To win on the road, you need to outwork the opponent. The Lakers championship squad a few years ago was a tough team on the road because they brought it consistently.

One thing the Lakers are consistent at this season? Poor first quarters. Another poor start of the game for the Lakers against the Magic.

They were tied when Bron sat and then down 13 when he returned less than 4 minutes later in the first quarter. The offense stalled with the three-big lineup, and the Magic hit a series of threes on their way to a 13-0 run.

The Lakers cut the lead in half, but were getting outworked for loose balls or giving up offensive boards and the lead ballooned again. Effort was just not there consistently as they gave up 26 second-chance points and a 11-1 advantage on the offensive glass to the Magic in the first half.

The Lakers would fall back by 25 in the third and never truly threaten again. They had cut the lead in half in the fourth, but missed some open looks at three and that was that. The Lakers fell 120-101.


LeBron -- -- Despite leading the Lakers on defensive boards, really weak effort at times there. Multiple times guys went around him for offensive boards when Bron had position when the shot went up. Got to finish defensive stands. “You got to want to go and get the damn ball, plain and simple,” Ham said when asked about the boards afterward. Despite that, he still led the team with a +12. The Lakers just had no flow without him. A lot of that was Russell just not having it. We need him to be strong when Bron rests. The Stats: He scored 24 points on 8-15 shooting (2-5 from three, 6-7 from the line) to go with 9 boards, 5 assists, 3 steals, 3 turnovers and 1 foul 35 minutes. He was a +12.

Davis -- -- Last line of defense and he was a bit under siege at times. Again, multiple times he’d block a short or challenge where we still couldn't go one and out.. He picked up his fourth foul to start the second half and that limited his abilities there for a stretch. But he’d pick it up again early in the fourth as the Lakers looked to make a final push. Early in the game, I thought they did a good job going to him in the post and he scored on four straight trips down. Then, like they do, they went away from it for long stretches. AD started getting more aggressive crashing the glass as the Lakers got to the rim. This led to some putback/second-chance points in the second half. The Stats: He scored 28 points on 10-15 shooting (8-8 from the line) to go with 13 boards (6 offensive), 3 assists, 7 blocks, 4 turnovers and 5 fouls in 32 minutes. He was a -24.

Russell -- -- A lot of problems tonight, Russell was just one of them. We had Reaves going in this game, but Russell disappeared. He sank a pull-up early, then swished a three. After that it was a whole lot of missed threes, including some great looks that had potential to change momentum. The Lakers were down by 13 midway through the fourth. If a couple of those go, it’s possibly a different story. Really bad miss on the break with 4 minutes to go when he was 1-9 from three already. Killer miss. Tough missing Gabe like we will for the next however many games. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 4-17 shooting (1-10 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 4 boards (2 offensive), 4 assists, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 35 minutes. He was a -17.

Reaves -- -- He took his first shot of the night with about a minute left in the first quarter. After that, he got more aggressive. He hit multiple threes, including a play out of the timeout set up for him to come off a screen and another tough three he had to create on iso to just beat the shotclock. In the second half, he got to the rim more off the high screens. That led to some easy scores for the team. He had a couple steals late in the fourth quarter but came up empty on a layup attempt and a three attempt on the break. Big misses for the team as the Magic hadn’t made a shot for 4 minutes. Good job getting the stops, but we needed those points for any chance. The Stats: He scored 20 points on 7-11 shooting (3-5 from three, 3-4 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 2 steals, 2 turnover and no fouls in 34 minutes. He was a +6.

Reddish -- -- With no Prince, Vando, Gabe or Rui, Reddish started again. Offensively, it felt like a lot of miscues for Reddish, but just 1 turnover. Seemed like more. Not much of a threat on that end. Defensively, I didn’t like the focus at times, allowing guys to cut behind him for scores or not paint attention on the break. We could have used a few more battles on the boards. Those AD/Bron lineups play small so someone giving the team some help there could make a difference. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-5 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 3 boards, 1 turnover and 4 fouls in 24 minutes. He was a -14.

Wood -- -- He’s been the guy to shore up our boards this season. He’s been grabbing hard to get ones, keeping the team to one and out possessions on the defensive end. We just couldn’t find that impact tonight. Wood with just 2 boards. Offensively, he sank a couple of threes. Some of his misses tend to be way off. Not sure what’s going on there. He had a nice short-play to feed Hayes for a dunk. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-6 shooting (2-5 from three) to go with 2 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks, 3 turnovers and 3 fouls in 29 minutes. He was a -12.

Christie -- -- He hit some pull-ups in the midrange. He always looks in control and automatic on those. In the final couple minutes of garbage time, he was basically running the point. That didn’t go well. As always, good job on the boards. Needed more of that from others. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 3-7 shooting (0-2 from three) to go with 5 boards, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 23 minutes. He was a -24.

Hayes -- -- He was a -10 in 11 minutes. We tried to go to that three big lineup we had in the last game. I feel like AR getting on a roll is what actually made that work, but I could be wrong. We just didn’t have the same tip of the spear attack to carry that unit. It’s sketchy to begin with because Hayes/AD isn’t a great floor spacing using. So you really need to know what you are doing to make that work. When Bron sat in that first quarter, that’s where they lost this one. Offensively, for Hayes, he missed some easy ones around the rim. His one score was on a Bron/Wood short-roll where Wood hit Hayes in the dunker spot for the slam. That was set up out of a deadball. We need reps getting those actions under our belt to make things smoother with Hayes on the floor. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-4 shooting to go with 1 board, 1 assist, 1 block, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 11 minutes. He was a -10.

Castleton -- -- We played a few minutes of garbage time and he was the only new Laker to get a score -- a layup off a drive and dish from Lewis. Welcome to the NBA. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-1 shooting to go with 1 board in 3 minutes. He was a -3.

Lewis -- -- Nice drive and dish to Castleton for a layup. So, his first NBA assist. He also fumbled a pass out of bounds for his first NBA turnover. Welcome to the NBA to him, as well. The Stats: He had 1 assist and 1 turnover in 3 minutes. He was a -3.

Hodge -- -- He missed a couple of threes in garbage time. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-2 from three and had 1 foul in 3 minutes. He was a -3.

Fudge -- -- He was stripped out of bounds on a drive. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-1 shooting in 3 minutes. He was a -3.

Ham -- -- Key Moment: At the 5:15 mark in the first quarter, we sat Bron and Reaves to go with AD, Wood, Hayes, Christie, Russell with the score tied 20-20. A minute thirty later they were down 31-20. Turnover out of Ham’s timeout to make that 33-20, a 13-0 run. That killed them.

Key Substitution: I felt like it was Reaves/Christie in the last game with those three bigs mentioned above. When Ham went to it this time, it was Russell. That didn’t work at all this time. Russell also hurt them in that fourth quarter run. The Lakers just are missing too many bodies. Wish they had Vincent in the mix. D’Angelo plays better with someone else that can run the offense at times. We don’t have that when we hit our rotations right now. That’s going to be tough.

Key Stats: The Magic had 26-7 advantage in second-chance points and an 11-1 advantage on the offensive glass in the first half. Crazy numbers. The Lakers are now a -72 in the first quarter in 6 games. Worst in the NBA.

[Laker7]

Thanks DB! Had to chose between watching the Lakers or going to my grandson's jazz concert. Looks like going to the concert was the right choice!
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Darvin Ham is an idiot!

[ocho]

https://x.com/kobebryant/status/315373469124681728?s=46&t=31MC7VyR17pRpNUv5uLFPA
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14-5-3-12

[A Mad Chinaman]

Slow starts, a developing pattern that was also seen last season

Maybe need a more defensive presence at the “3” (Vando or Rui)

When AD is actually “Da Man” - we won’t lose leads (DLo/AR needs to be effective in feeding AD the ball)

Insert some energy players (Christie)

Side Benefits
Vincent, Vando and Rui see what is happening

[DancingBarry]

[deal]

Terrible effort…


Thanks for the recap DB.
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Lakers need to build a freaking team !

[tox]

Awful, awful game. The Lakers have a serious rebounding problem. It seemed to me like the Magic's strategy was to keep going at AD. Even if AD got a block, the Magic knew that meant he was out of position for a rebound, which meant easy offensive rebounds. Having Vanderbilt back will be helpful in this regard, but I also think given how LeBron isn't particularly locked in, we need plus rebounding from the guard position too. It was really nice seeing Christie grab some contested rebounds.

I see AR fighting more on the boards but I do think it's something you're just kind of born with. I don't expect Russell or Reaves or Prince to become good rebounders, and this to me is the biggest concern I have now about the roster construction. I'm not sure if just having Vanderbilt back will be enough, and maybe in the playoffs a locked in LeBron is good. But I honestly would rather replace one of Russell or Reaves with a more physical guard who maybe does less offensively. As is, LeBron's +/- numbers reveal that neither Russell nor Reaves is doing an adequate job leading the offense without LeBron anyway...

I'm trying not to get too carried away because, at the end of the day, the Lakers are missing 4 of their top 8-9 players, which is nothing to sneeze at.

[Nobody]

This team is no fun to watch. No defense. No semblance of an offense. No effort. I understand that they are undermanned, but a team with two HOFers should not be losing to such an edition of the Magic. There also doesn't seem to be a quick fix to their woes, perhaps the Lakers just aren't as good as we had hoped they would be.

[RI Laker]

Thanks DB. Slow start, no energy, zero interior presence (both D and rebounding) is a recipe for disaster.

[governator]

half glass full… half glass full… half glass full

Injuries…
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“The main goal for the Lakers is to win a championship. All I care about, all we care about, is to raise another banner in the rafters.“

[PenG_]

This team is very reliant on DLo.

[poppies]

It's getting hard to stay positive about the season.

[LakerSD]

[TDRock]

That game was a frustrating flashback to the games early last season. I shall take comfort knowing we had key guys out.

Thanks DB
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#IStillBelieveTaurean

[joeblow]

First of all, props to the Magic coach, GM, and its players. In two games against our Lakers I can appreciate how well their squad is doing with what they have (especially the effort).

[cheesehead88]

Agree. They are pulling AD with pick and rolls. After that it’s basically an offensive player against Bron, Prince/Reddish. Usually either Reaves or DLO spacing on weak side. You are totally correct. Bron and his “small forward” counterpart offering zero resistance at all in terms of competent forward defenders/ rebounders/ shot blocking.

Just step aside and ball watch. We have seen this before from Bron. In 2019, 2021, and 2022. Slowly getting more and more pathetic. Not only is the backcourt porous. Our front court useless as well other than AD

[joeblow]

^^^ Well, let's be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. As I said above, Lebron still does a tremendous amount of good work for this team, so it falls on Ham to figure out ways to deal with his shortcomings.

For example, his mediocre 3P% will hurt us less if Lebron simply stops shooting them as often as he has in the past. The coach can be firm on that point, and things have gotten better there I must say.

Two seasons ago Lebron threw up (literally and figuratively) a horrific 8 3PAs a game. Last season he toned it down to an obscene 7 3PAs a game. This season so far he is down to an ugly 6 3PAs a game despite playing similar minutes... progress! If he can get that down to 4-5 3PAs a game, that will only help the squad succeed.

However, when it comes to defending the paint and attacking the boards (or boxing out) with ferocity and purpose, that's not an issue of expecting Lebron to stop doing the wrong thing (like take less threes), but to see how best to get him to do the right thing more often.

That's why Ham is the key. He can do a better job of encouraging Lebron behind the scenes of course, but the coach can also do a better job of monitoring his minutes so he can exert himself more often.

The other major adjustment I mentioned above is for Ham to remove one mediocre defender from the starting line up (and closing line up of a close game) like one of the guards for a legit Laker defender with size.

It'll be interesting to see Ham's rotations and substitution decisions once we are relatively healthy.

[kfkilla]

Can’t have 3 or 4 ball watchers on the defensive side. Fix that problem and we will look a lot better. Right now our problems are the following it seems:

On D out gaurds get beat off a pick or the dribble, AD goes for the block, 2 or more of Bron/Cam/AR/DLo ball watch and the other team crashes hard, gets an offensive rebound and now the D is compromised. We have to know that this is going to happen and rotate to put a body on people. AR/Dlo are going to get beat, but so are 99% of guards given a pick. They need to rotate and get down low and box out!

On O AD needs to stop going for every offensive rebound. He’s compromising our defense leaving our guards to get feasted on!

We need a high motor guy in the starting lineup that plays with energy. Right now we have AD/Dlo/AR and their all finesse low motor guys at their core. Yes AD is powerful but he’s lanky with a high center of gravity. Bron obviously can be a high motor guy but we all know we need to bubble wrap him and he stands around A LOT so there is no hope there until the playoffs. That leaves the 3. I can’t wait till Vando comes back. His motor is much missed. I seriously would consider playing Wood or Hayes more and slide down Bron to 3. Need bigger, stronger athletes in there. Cam is not it.

[PenG_]

[joeblow]